Lisbon

Our first day in Lisbon was an unmitigated disaster. We caught the bus down to the ferry, which took cars as well, and managed to get to the other side of the harbour.  So far, so good. We had been told there was a place directly where we got off the ferry where we could buy 24 hour tickets for bus, tram, metro, and train, but after Ross asking at 4 different places, he just bought a return train ticket at the station. We arrived at Cas do Sodre (Central Station) and hooked into their wifi to try to find the church/cathedral that had been damaged by the earthquake in 1755. Google came up with a dozen options, and since I didn’t have a clue, I chose Carmo Convent. It seemed to be about where I remembered it to be! We decided to catch a metro to the next station, which was apparently close to it. On exiting the metro, we were immediately drenched to the skin in a torrential downpour. People were scurrying about, trying to escape the rain, sheltering in doorways or under huge café umbrellas. We decided to abort the mission and ducked back down into the metro, back to Central Station and then on the train back to Belem, the ferry terminal. As we hopped off the train, it started pouring again with no warning. If we thought we were saturated before, now we were drenched to the skin and I’m not exaggerating. We had to run over the train bridge, down a million steps, (slight exaggeration) over the road and the carpark to the dry terminal building. Very fortunately, we only had a few minutes wait for the ferry during which time Ross wrung my socks out as much as possible, in the vain hope of keeping my feet warm. It was not the sort of day to be wearing hiking sandals! I also learned that my pink waterproof snow jacket isn’t waterproof at all! Over the harbour again where the really helpful ticketing girl called us a cab (it was 50 cents dearer than the bus!) to take us back to our camper, where I immediately changed out of my wet clothes and into dry jammies. Poor Ross went to have a shower and dry the clothes off in the dryer. No way were they all going to dry in the camper. I climbed into bed and slept for 11 hours straight!

I was determined to try again next day, but we thought we’d try a different route. There was a bus directly into town and the stop was “just down the road”. Three quarters of an hour later, we hopped on the bus, which took us into a part of Lisbon that I didn’t recognize at all, definitely not the centre. We saw all the ugly parts on the way in; industrial areas, ramshackle buildings and horrible graffiti walls. We got off at the last stop and looked around us. You guessed it. The skies opened! I had my waterproof snow boots on today (lesson learned from yesterday- bright sunny day can turn into rain here very quickly) and hurriedly pulled my Irish poncho over my head. It was no match for the pouring rain and blustery wind. I definitely did not want to get wet again today, so we quickly jumped into the first cab we saw and asked could he take us to Lucimar Restaurant- I had it on my phone as he couldn’t understand my accent- which was about 10 minutes drive. He dropped us right to the door for less than 5 euro. Lucimar is a little off the beaten track, but well worth the diversion.

Lucimar was just as I remembered it- I was hoping Ross wouldn’t be disappointed in the food.  They weren’t open for lunch yet (it was only 11.30) but the waitress brought us a coffee to start and then some olives, fresh bread rolls, butter and pate. I encouraged Ross to try the francesinha and I ordered pork steak. Both were served with huge plates of thin chips. The lovely waitress brought me some “hot sauce” for the pork, and I shook a few drops onto it before I realized it wasn’t Worcestershire sauce as I had thought, but chili olive oil!  I had a few mouthfuls before a tiny amount became caught in my throat and I couldn’t breathe. Coughing and spluttering in an effort to breathe, and frantically searching in my bag for water, I managed to regain my composure when the waitress offered me a glass of port, which miraculously cured me. She called it “sweet wine”.

At this stage, I thought it might be a good idea to swap meals. Ross had eaten half of his francesinha and loved it, and can tolerate chili far better than I can. I enjoyed the francesinha as well- I must look for the recipe- although I think everyone makes it differently. I wanted to try one of the desserts in the cabinet, but instead was bought a large piece of  Portuguese tart (tarte de nates). Ross opted for the crème brulee, which was bruleed right in front of him. After dessert, we were brought sherry to finish off the meal. And how much did all this cost? 33 euro! We asked Josemaria, presumably the owner of Lucimar, could he call us a cab to take us to the hop-on, hop-off bus as during the meal, while showing the waitress my photos from my last visit, I discovered the name of the church was Sao Domingos so at least I knew what we were looking for, and surely it’s on the bus route.

Josemaria told us the restaurant wasn’t busy (it was packed by this time!) and he would drive us himself! He didn’t want anything from us, so I’m still not sure why he would go out of his way to be so kind. Many obrigados later, we hopped out of his lovely silver car, and waited for the bus, which arrived in a few minutes. We had to buy a 2-day ticket, which cost 27 euro each. We stayed on the bus until stop number 4 and walked a little way to the church. At last , I found it! I swear the same beggar woman was still there. It turns out it wasn’t damaged by the earthquake in 1755, but by a fire in 1959! No wonder no one I asked could help me!

I knelt and said a short prayer of thanks; I really feel an affinity with this church more than any of the other cathedrals I have visited, with their opulence and ostentatious decadence which leave me feeling quite cold. Maybe the damaged pillars remind me of my own life; I don’t know- it’s just a special place for me. Ross bought me a little pamphlet detailing its history, with a description that says, ”A sanctuary in the centre of Lisbon, that leaves no one indifferent.”

We finally found a post office and posted our postcards, then watched a drama in real life where the tram was stuck because a woman hadn’t parked her car properly and the tram just kept ringing the bell until she came running with a small child in her arms, not knowing what to do first. I felt sorry for her, but I gave a running commentary on the drama unfolding before my eyes. Pity I didn’t video the whole thing!

We tried to board the next tram but had to go up to the stop in the square where it started raining again. We did a circuit on two trams but still didn’t get back to where we started so had to walk back. Amazingly, I knew the way. We found the hop on-hop off bus stop with our bus there waiting but it pulled away just as we were about to board it. He obviously doesn’t check his rear view mirror! Ross grabbed us a small coffee while we waited for the next bus, which was a little open air affair- not good in rainy weather. I managed to spill the coffee all over myself. (luckily I hadn’t taken off my poncho!)

We were planning on doing the full circuit, but this was not fun at all so we hopped off at the very next stop, walked through the Arch of Triumph and down to the Sexiest WC in the World- very fancy-schmancy! We walked to the ferry terminal but no ferries left from here for our neck of the woods, so we had to catch two metros back to Cas Do Sodre. Of course our 24 -hour ticket had just expired and we couldn’t get the bloody ticket machine to work. The assistant finally came over to help us after making a call to her superior (we assumed) and she couldn’t get it to work either! She tried another machine and we fished two tickets out of the tray. We arrived back to the station only to find the ticket booth unattended so we had to try to work this bloody machine.  We only wanted two one-way tickets to Belem, the ferry terminal. We paid for two, but the machine only gave us one. I kept the receipt saying two in case anyone asked. I must be psychic.  We checked the platform we needed and the direction the train was going and its estimated time of departure and hopped on. We didn’t check if it was an express or not! You guessed it- it flew straight through our station but we didn’t realize until it had flown through a few other stations as well and stopped way out in the country! It was dark and raining so we couldn’t evens see the station names. Finally we worked out what had happened and got on the train going back to Central hoping it was going to stop at Belem. You wouldn’t believe it but next minute we are confronted by a burly ticket inspector. We valiantly tried to explain that the machine had only given us one ticket, and I showed him the receipt saying 2 and all he says is 2 trips. We tried to explain that we were not even supposed to be on this train. We were only supposed to be going 3 stations to Belem but we accidentally got an express train. He kept talking and we kept talking until eventually he gave up and harassed another old woman. He was trying to tell us the ticket office was open, and I was arguing that it bloody well wasn’t!

Finally, we arrived back at Belem and the skies opened again! I managed to stay relatively dry (compared to the previous night) but the bottom of my pants and the back of my jumper got wet. (I didn’t have time to put the poncho hood up.) It was 8 C colder than last night, so I was shivering. Ross put his coat over my shoulders; he reckoned he was warm, and went to find us a coffee. He came back with two coffees and two cold filled bread rolls. I took one bite and gave mine to him, but the coffee warmed me from the inside out.

At the end of an exhausting day, and after walking almost 10 kilometres, we were accompanied onto the boat by a fractious baby, screaming her lungs out.  Luckily, the sound of the engines either drowned out the crying of the baby or the rocking of the boat calmed her back to sleep. At the terminal, our helpful ticket girl wasn’t on, and the guy wasn’t nearly so helpful. He told us the taxi number was on the ATM so we called it on my new Portugal SIM. We waited half an hour with one more call before our friendly ticket girl came to work, and called a taxi for us which was there within 5 minutes. She hadn’t heard of the taxi mob we had called and had never seen their sticker on the machine.

Unbelievably, we had enough energy for very hot showers before bed. Once again, I slept all night!